With its recent DVD and Blu-ray release, film critic Mark Kermode thinks it’s a good moment to look again at Steven Spielberg’s epic drama WAR HORSE – and I agree.

Even when you’re Steven Spielberg making a film version of Michael Murpurgo’s hugely successful novel WAR HORSE you’re not immune to criticism. No matter your cast is made up of a veritable who’s who of talented British actors – Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis and Eddie Marsan – with another young discovery, Jeremy Irvine, as the film’s lead. Sometimes people like the film you create and sometimes they don’t.

Jeremy Irvine as Albert with Joey

I did feel that the criticism levelled at the film seemed unfair when it was released earlier this year, as I thought it was pretty great. Here it’s discussed rather brilliantly by The Observer’s Mark Kermode in his review about how it really works as a film adaptation: